The FBI and the Secret Service have engaged in law enforcement in Florida in an attempt to hunt the suspect into a federal water supply and attempted to be loaded with ‘dangerous levels’ of a chemical found in a drain cleaner.
The haulier broke down the system at the Oldsmar town water treatment plant last Friday using a remote access program shared with plant workers.
There was a danger that cybersecurity experts say it has grown as systems become more computerized and accessible through the internet.
Authorities had no suspicion as they were Tuesday but said they were following leaders.
Investigators say it was not immediately clear whether the hacker was domestic or foreign.
The haulier broke down the system at an Oldsmar water treatment plant in Florida last Friday using a remote access program shared with plant workers. Image courtesy of WTSP
The browser has attempted to load with ‘dangerous levels’ of chemicals found in a drain cleaner
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki addressed the hockey incident Tuesday at her briefing, acknowledging the involvement of the Secret Service and saying cybersecurity was a key focus in Biden’s administration.
‘As was announced earlier today, the FBI and the Secret Service are under investigation,’ she said.
‘That’s something we would certainly dismiss for their particular findings from that study. I will generally say that the president, vice president and members of our national security team are aiming to increase cybersecurity as a threat that has only increased over several years. ‘
Florida grandfather Marco Rubio has called on the FBI to treat the investigation as a national security issue.
The hacker who broke the system was able to make a brief increase of sodium hydroxide by a factor of one hundred (from 100 parts per million to 11,100 parts per million), according to Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri.
Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye, is used to treat acidity of water but the fertilizer is also found in cleaning products such as soap and drain cleaners.
It can cause humiliation, burns and other problems in larger quantities.
Authorities say the chemical’s supervisor saw a disturbance and was able to intervene and reverse it immediately.
Gualtieri maintains that the public was never in danger but admitted that the attacker brought ‘the sodium hydroxide up to dangerous levels’.
The city of Oldsmar, with a population of about 15,000, is located about 15 miles from Tampa.
Pinellas County Sheriff Bob Gualtieri (right) and Mayor Eric Seidel (left) announced news of the hack on Monday. Gualtieri maintains that the public was never in danger but admitted that the attacker ‘brought the sodium hydroxide up to dangerous levels’
The sheriff said the attacker was active for three to five minutes. When they were gone, the plant operator immediately returned the chemical mixture
A plant worker had first noticed unusual activity at around 8am on Friday when someone briefly accessed the system – called TeamViewer – but didn’t think much about it because jobs regularly access the system remotely, Gualtieri said.
But at around 1.30pm, someone found it again, took control of the mouse, directed it to the software that controls water handling and increases the amount of sodium hydroxide.
The sheriff said the attacker was active for three to five minutes. When they were gone, the plant operator immediately returned the chemical mixture.
‘The man was sitting there monitoring the computer as it should and suddenly he sees a window appearing that the computer has been accessed,’ Gualtieri said.
‘The next thing you know is that someone is dragging the mouse and clicking around and opening programs and manipulating the system.’
Other safeguards in place – including a manual check – might have caught the switch in the 24 to 36 hours it took before it reached the water supply, the sheriff said.
Oldsmar officials have since disabled the remote access system and say other safeguards were in place to prevent more chemicals from entering the water.
Officials warned other city leaders in the area – who were hosting the Super Bowl – about the incident and recommended that they check their systems.
Experts say urban water and other systems have the potential to be easy targets for hackers as local government computer infrastructure tends to be underfunded.
Florida grandfather Marco Rubio called on the FBI to treat the investigator as a national security issue
Robert M. Lee, Head of Dragos Security, and an expert in the vulnerability of the business control system, said remote access to business control systems such as those running water treatment plants has been growing. common.
‘As businesses become more digitally connected we will continue to see more states and criminals targeting these sites for their impact on society,’ Lee said.
Leading cybersecurity company FireEye has had a huge impact on the hacking efforts it has seen in the past year largely on beginners trying to learn about remotely accessible business systems.
Apparently many victims were randomly selected and no serious damage was caused in any of the cases – partly due to safety mechanisms and professional inspection, FireEye analyst Daniel Kapellmann Zafra said in a statement .
‘While the incident (Oldsmar) does not appear to be particularly complex, it does highlight the need to strengthen cybersecurity capabilities across the water and wastewater industry,’ he said.
The biggest concern for experts is the potential for state-backed hackers who intend to do serious damage by targeting water supplies, power grids and other vital services.
In May, Israel’s cyber chief said the country had stopped a major cyber attack a month earlier against its water systems, an attack that was widely carried out because of its Iranian archenemy. If Israel had not detected the attack in real time, he said chlorine or other chemicals could enter the water, leading to a ‘catastrophic’ outcome.
Tarah Wheeler, a Harvard Cybersecurity Fellow, said communities should take every precaution when using remote access technology on something as essential as a water supply.
‘System administrators who are in charge of major civil infrastructure such as a water treatment facility should fortify that plant as if they were consolidating the water in their own kitchens,’ Wheeler told the Associated Press via email.
‘At times when people are setting up local networks, they don’t realize the risk from a set of configured and secured internet-connected devices.’